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'Memoirs and Recollections of An Officer of the Indian Political Service' [78r] (155/156)
The record is made up of 1 file (78 folios). It was created in 1983?. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
- 78 -
I had served in India since March 1929, first in the Indian Army and then latterly as
a member of the
Indian Political Service
The branch of the British Government of India with responsibility for managing political relations between British-ruled India and its surrounding states, and by extension the Gulf, during the period 1937-47.
since 1934. These 192 years were, to use
a very hackneyed phrase, 'the best years of my life'. I had enjoyed it all and we had
been very happy. Indeed, I had been luckier than most as I had seen the best of two
careers - I had started life as an Indian Cavalryman in the days when Regiments were
still mounted - and had finished as a Political Service Officer. No-one could have
asked for better. I was also the last of six generations of Cottons to serve con
secutively and without a break for the last one hundred and fifty years in the service
either of the Honourable The East India (the Sirkar), or The Crown. It was a record
of which we Cottons had always been very proud, and it was largely because of this
that, in my seventy-fourth year, I have been persuaded to place on record my recollections
of my experiences in India.
About this item
- Content
This file contains a photocopy of a typewritten draft of Sir John Richard Cotton's (b 1909) memoirs of his time in the Indian military and civil service. The memoirs, which were written when the author was 'in his seventy-fourth year', cover his time in the Indian Army, at Aden, Ethiopia, Attock, the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , Mount Abu, Hyderabad, Rajkot (Kathiawar), the Political Department in New Delhi, and finally the UK High Commission in Pakistan.
- Extent and format
- 1 file (78 folios)
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the first folio with 1, and terminates at the last folio with 78; these numbers are written in pencil and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. The file also contains an original printed foliation sequence.
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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'Memoirs and Recollections of An Officer of the Indian Political Service' [78r] (155/156), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F226/7, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100076278456.0x00009c> [accessed 18 June 2026]
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Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- Mss Eur F226/7
- Title
- 'Memoirs and Recollections of An Officer of the Indian Political Service'
- Pages
- 1r:78v
- Author
- Cotton, Sir John Richard
- Copyright
- ©From Sir John Cotton's "Memoirs & Recollections of an Officer of the Indian Political Service"
- Usage terms
- Creative Commons Non-Commercial Licence